It’s dead, Jim! Sprint iDEN has finally been shut down

Share This article

At 12:01am US/EDT yesterday, Sprint turned off the iDEN network nationally. With the iDEN network shut down, the next step for Sprint is to reuse the iDEN spectrum for 3G/4G services.

Sprint’s shutdown of iDEN service ends the eight-year period of Sprint owning and running Nextel’s iDEN network in the United States. The period began with mismanagement, culture clashes between Nextel and Sprint, and divestitures of international operations that helped iDEN grow in the Americas. It was complicated by Sprint’s work to determine its 3G upgrade path (which it wound up choosing CDMA2000 1X EvDO) and its efforts to consolidate and get out of the DSL business (which became Embarq, now part of CenturyLink).

With the iDEN network being turned off, Sprint is now free to fully utilize the ESMR 800 spectrum for CDMA 1X and LTE service, which it gained approval for last year. Consequently, Sprint will become the third national operator with the ability to offer widespread rural 4G service. In most of Sprint’s current footprint, Sprint will be able to offer CDMA 1X and 5MHz LTE.

However, there are some complications with that. Because the United States is bordered by Canada and Mexico, Sprint has to be careful about interference Mike by Telus at the Canadian border and Nextel Mexico at the Mexican border.

Some of the direct border areas (like at the Great Lakes and Northwest Washington) will not permit more than CDMA 1X and 1.4MHz LTE to operate there. For the time being, I suspect these areas will only have CDMA 1X, since they are urban areas where Sprint’s PCS G block covers them with LTE quite well. Other border areas (like the Southwest border, stretching from California to Texas) will permit CDMA 1X and 3MHz LTE.

Borders are not the only problem areas, though. Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia are limited to 3MHz LTE because the ESMR band is further divided between Sprint and SouthernLinc (owned by Southern Company, an electric power utility company). SouthernLinc recently began offering 3G service through an indirect wholesale agreement with T-Mobile, and it is expected that it will transition iDEN to LTE in the future, though no plans have been announced yet.

Regardless of these issues, Sprint has been quietly working to prepare for the activation of CDMA 1X and LTE on ESMR. Virtually every Sprint subscriber using a phone released by Sprint in the last three years will support at least CDMA 1X on ESMR. New devices supporting LTE on ESMR are coming in a few months.

It’s time, Sprint. Work swiftly on the path to domination.

Tagged In

Post a Comment

Jeremy Garcia

This is good news! I kinda wish I was still on Sprint, but I can’t stand that $10 premium data fee. I was paying $75/mo, which included a 18% discount. That’s more than the $70 advertised. I was with Sprint for a little more than 3 years, and they were particularly good to me for the first 2, but it seems like ever since they got the iPhone, customer service has plummeted.

SteveBozell

Sprint should have explored becoming an MVNO years ago. Under a typical MVNO agreement, Sprint would have sold it’s towers, and spectrum to a company that can properly manage the infrastructure; likely a company like Verizon.

Then, Sprint would buy minutes from Verizon, in bulk, and be able to sell phones with the sprint brand name silkscreened on them. Because, well, that’s all that Sprint is. Sprint has have terrible service, that drops calls, and DirectConnect on Sprint is a joke.

Over the years, Sprint has become real good at silkscreening; it’s their primary business and the only thing they’re good at. They even went to the UK to buy rights to the “Virgin Mobile” brand and put that on a bunch of old backstock phones that people knew that Sprint couldn’t sell.

Eric

I live in Tucson and I paid the premium data fee for 2 years. In those two years I got nothing but low speeds and crappy coverage. Glad I left for Verizon.

Eric

I live in Tucson and I paid the premium data fee for 2 years. In those two years I got nothing but low speeds and crappy coverage. Glad I left for Verizon.

Daniel Darnell

Sprint’s 3G (EVDO) Network was terrible when I had Sprint which was some time ago the speeds were quite bad. However Sprint is rolling out LTE and it’s much faster than than EVDO and even WiMax. Plus Sprint is doing well with Network Vision and consolidating spectrum. Sprint still has some ways to go but once everything is integrated together and the infusion of cash from Soft Bank they should be in much better shape and a solid provider.

Eric

My contract with them expired this past March and I got tired of them trying to get their act together. Their 3G is still terrible and WiMax never arrived to Arizona since they put their money on a tech that was outdone by LTE. When Sprint LTE does finally get lit up it will still have a ways to go before it gets good coverage like Verizon does in my area. By then Verizon will be implementing LTE on its AWS spectrum. Hopefully the SoftBank deal, in addition to the Clearwire buyout, gives Sprint some much needed support in improving their network.

Daniel Darnell

Sprint just launched LTE in my market and honestly I’ve hearing good things about it from people that I know on Sprint with LTE devices. Taking a look at the coverage map it’s in most of the metro area and even in some very rural spots in my market. I’m impressed that Sprint has launched LTE in my smaller market and with a pretty good initial LTE build out. My area never got WiMax either but we now have LTE.

Ray C

Sprint’s PTT was not as good as Nextel’s was. When they switched from Nextel’s way to their own way, it just wasn’t as good.

FleetNavalAviator

Nextel was always about the bandwidith it owned. I was with Nextel in the early 1990s for the Southern Califonrnia rollout. The system was alway junk. But Nextel aquired about all the 800 MHZ bandwith in the country.
iDEN was always junk and Nextel and Sprint both knew it, but the bandwidth was/is gold.

Use of this site is governed by our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Copyright 1996-2015 Ziff Davis, LLC.PCMag Digital Group All Rights Reserved. ExtremeTech is a registered trademark of Ziff Davis, LLC. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of Ziff Davis, LLC. is prohibited.